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usga rulling

So by now if you haven't herd the USGA has proposed the rule change. Clearing up what is considered anchoring the club. I for one agree with the decision. they did not ban long or belly putters. just you will not be alowed to anchor them to your belly or chest. and something else you can not anchor your for arm to your chest with a long butter or anchor your fore arm to your waist line. i think the did a good job explaining and covering it. check it out all the major golf sites are covering it and go to usga and watch the video and slides.

I saw it coming. Golf has been around for centuries and has been and always will be changing. I think, like the groove rule, it won't have much effect on the players, but will greatly effect amateurs. I read somewhere that there's more long putters out there than short ones at the junior events and in college

Learn something new everyday don't you Josh? I had never heard of that, but find it quite interesting. Around my area you don't see anyone using the long putters, but I'm glad they did this. It levels the playing field, and now everyone has an equal shot. They will find ways around this rule, but think its a good start.

I don't think there's an advantage to anchoring the putter. There's a long list of top players and major winners who don't anchor the putter. I play a Napa and putt very well with it. I was just relieved to see they made a ruling one way or another. Controversy gets old quickly.

It seems like everyone that uses a short putter agrees with the ruling and everyone that uses a long putter disagrees with the ruling. Anyway, since I don't use one, Im fine with them banning them and do agree with the rulings.

It seems like everyone that uses a short putter agrees with the ruling and everyone that uses a long putter disagrees with the ruling. Anyway, since I don't use one, Im fine with them banning them and do agree with the rulings.

Nope, I use a regular length putter and I don't agree with the ruling. If I play against someone I want them playing their best, if that means anchoring the putter, then I want them anchoring the putter.

I've tried both long and belly putters, they aren't easier.

The field was level, everyone used what they played best with, now, when the rule takes effect, some people will be disadvantaged.

I like the ruling my self. I didn't like the act of anchoring a putter. for me what i see in golf is no other swing has a player stabilizing a club directly to a part of the body while swinging. i think the ruling is fair and defines that a putter swing should be no different.

i see your point but i do have some disagreements. I agree i like seeing people playing at there best. and in a casual game (non tournament) i am fine with anchoring a putter and the average golfer who just plays on the weekend with no desire to compete for championships. these are all fine and dandy. i understand that the putting stroke is in some aspects harder to control. but i think that this also supports the idea of banning it in competition. people that have nervous hands should practice putting more. that's part of the pressure of the moment. when you anchor the putter it dose help stabilize the club. while it may not perfectly stabilize the club it dose provide more stabilization than a non anchored club. and besides a put is a stroke like any other stroke and you don't see people anchoring drivers or irons. And just to finish on. there are a lot of clubs on the market that are non-conforming that people buy all the time. the old r7 560's became band at one time. a lot of Japanese market clubs are non conforming. people can still use them. they just can use them in competition. and i think this gets lost on some average golfers. they don't realize that the club can still be used on a golf course. I have never meet a starter that inspected your bag to make sure you didn't have 15 clubs or non conforming drivers on a non tournament day. no one says you cant ever play with this club. it just means you cant use it in competition governed by usga rules. that's all.

" i understand that the putting stroke is in some aspects harder to control. but i think that this also supports the idea of banning it in competition. people that have nervous hands should practice putting more. that's part of the pressure of the moment. when you anchor the putter it dose help stabilize the club. while it may not perfectly stabilize the club it dose provide more stabilization than a non anchored club. and besides a put is a stroke like any other stroke and you don't see people anchoring drivers or irons"

A flaw with your logic, how many people do you see using a driver or irons with both arms anchored to their sides thrughout the stroke?

You do realize that in the modern putting stroke the hands and arms are completely taken out of the stroke.......which is not the case with drivers and irons.

Did you know that with the use of both belly and long putters it requires the use of the arms(belly), 1 arm(long).......thats more than the modern putting stroke.

Ok Quintin i think i might see where your going with this but i'll counter your point.

your term of "modern" I'm going to assume only accounts for the last 30-40 years of putting like the old Nickolas days were they were very wristie. prior to those days like the Old tom Morris days. the putting stroke was still more upright and long swinging like modern putting. So that being said Modern is a little grey to use as a term with out predefining the time line. i would say that Nickolas putting was modern in terms of the life span of the golf swing

originally when i wrote the comment of anchoring drivers and irons i was referring to a physical bond of the club to any other part of the body than the hand. But i think your referring to the practice of holding your bi-cept to your chest. and i see how one might argue this is a form of anchoring but i offer the fact that in a "proper" or "proper ish" swing this arm to chest bond breaks apart threw impact. thus it is not an anchor it is simply natural body movements that happen to contact each other for a portion of the swing. not start bonded and end bonded threw out the stroke.

I'm not sure where you were going with the last point about use of belly and long as more. but i will blindly try to counter it. so to start i'll go long putter. majority of long putter people mate the butt of the club or their hand area or for arm to reduce movement in the butt end of the clubs swing. thus creating a kind of pendulum swing with the club only. this leads more often than not the use of only one arm to control the clubs speed and motion. the shakiness is reduced. Now on to the belly putter. while this one is a little harder to argue the point of anchoring to control one end of the club still remains. by stabilizing the butt end with your belly or hip you still achieve not having to control that end of the club. also you get a pendulum like motion. one that is far more stabilized than a non anchored swing.

I've meet guys what have horrible chipping yips and people like my dad that can hit a wood straight to save there life. but we outlawed the self correcting golf balls to help those people. but my personnel feeling is don't use the putters in competition because it is an advantage. it decreases the players need to have steady hands and calm nerves. no if you noticed i use competition in my opinions. if I'm out playing a pick up game for just random fun i don't care if the guy is using a long putter or non conforming driver or even carries 16 clubs in a bag. they are out there to have fun and not compete. competition should be standardized and strict. but that's my opinion and i welcome yours and look forward to your counter points.

I have been playing golf over 50 years and putting was always the best part of my game until a couple of years ago. I started getting "yippy" the closer I got to the hole. This is a brain disorder that crops up from out of the blue and is completely mental. I tried all kinds of techniques to over come the situation. Visualizing all putts as 6 inches, closing my eyes, long hours of putting drills (no problem on the practice putting green, only when actually playing did my hands get jerky). Playing golf was no longer fun and I was on the verge of giving up the game. Who wants to play when you start missing 3 feet putts because you can't keep your hands from opening or closing the putter face ? Then I tried the belly putter. Like magic the yips were gone. Golf became fun again. I then tried the long putter. It was even better as it even took out the back strain of bending over. I could stand almost straight and keep my eye on or slightly inside the ball target line. The mental thing is that using the belly or long putter with a completely different grip then what I had been using for 50 years was like erasing a hard drive and starting over with a clean slate. I still am learning on how much force to use for long lag putting but like everything else, it is coming together the more I play and practice. I cannot say that using the long putter is cheating because it still takes skill to make a correct putt but it definitely has cured the yips I had. Will I continue to use the long putter 3 years from now ? Yes as I don't plan on playing in sanctioned golf tournaments. If other players think I will be cheating then they don't have to play with me. I don't gamble and play for my own pleasure that golf brings.

It seems to me the USGA and R&A believe that all clubs should be swung in a traditional manner and, anchoring the club or your hands violates that beleif. I agree. In college, we used to play a silly game of "Putters Only" to change things up a bit. We put mid-iron length shafts in some old, heel shafted putters, teed up from the forward tees and swung away. It's impressive to see how far you can hit it with a putter. The point is we used the putter with a traditional swing through the green AND on the green. Anchoring serves to remove an unstable hand in a dynamic state and replace it with a "rock steady" pivot point. Old Tom Morris, Harry Vardon, Bobby Jones, et cetera would agree with what the ruling bodies have proposed. Furthermore, it seems that every person that uses an anchored putting method knows "it ain't golf, but it's legal". Some sage advice, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it.

Carl, you keep on playing in a manner that helps you enjoy the game. The proposed ruling is ONLY meant for competition and the purposes of establishing a handicap. It is not meant to interfere with casual golf.